rcars4life

So heres whats up, Right now I have an upgraded headlight harness which means it has 2 relays, 1 for high beams 1 for lows. I just installed some pro-comp fogs and tapped into the lowbeam power so they are always when my lows are on. I want them to be on ALL the time including with high beams on. How can I go about doing this, I am assuming I will have to add a new relay. I am trying to avoid adding a switch since I desire these lights to be on all the time. ( they aren't fogs in the sense of the beam pattern, just small 55w lights)

GSGALLANT

If you always want them on, you just need to tap into any circuit that's live in the situation you want your lights to be on. For example, if you want them to come on when you turn the key to "acc" or "on", tap into a circuit that's live when the key is turned to "acc" or "on", such as the power outlet circuit. If you want them to come on only when you turn the key to "on", tap into a circuit that's only live when the key is turned to "on", such as the wiper circuit.

If I was doing it, I'd wire it directly to the battery and put a switch in, because it's nice to be able to control when lights are on and off.

Elton

take that wire add a inline fuse and hook it up to the battery and you can use them when you want also adding a switch in the cab is very easy

rcars4life

gsgallant- thats smart to tap into the wire going to the wipers! I think i will do that, can I just find the wire going to the wiper motor and tap into that? The reason I don't want to just have a switch running to the battery is if I forget to flip the switch.

GSGALLANT

You can wire a light switch is series with the wire coming from the wiper circuit, that way, with the light switch "on", the lights will come on when the ignition is turned to "ON", and will shut off when the truck is shut off. The nice thing about this is that you can always choose to turn the lights off if you need to by switching the light switch to "off", regardless of what position the ignition switch is in.

Now, for the wiper circuit, you can tap into power in a few places. In all cases, you're looking for a solid grey wire. You can get it where it connects to the wiper switch under the steering wheel, you can get it at the wiper motor, you can get it at the washer motor, or you can get it right at the 25A wiper fuse (located in the fuse box by the driver's side kickplate). In all these cases, you should have 12V with the ignition switch at the "on" position only. This applies to the 2002 4Runner, but is likely the same for your 1996. Maybe somebody else can confirm that it is the same.

JHRRLD

That's what it was on my 2000 4runner

rcars4life

thanks for the help guys, i ended up tapping into the corner light, threw into a relay and it worked! haha you wouldn't believe how excited i was when those ugly orange lights came one (soon to be clear)

Next project is installing and wiring up some my lights on the roof!

GSGALLANT

So your new lights are going to come on everytime you put your parking lights on? To me, that doesn't seem like the ideal setup (what if you just want your parking lights on by themselves?), but whatever works best for you, I guess. I'd at least still consider putting a switch in that circuit to give you the option of shutting them off if you want to. Glad to hear you got them working, though.

rcars4life

I have never in my life had just my parking lights on, I still can't quite figure out what they are for. I like the set up, I spent hours with my roomate tryin to figure out what set up to do and this seemed to fit me best. for my roof lights i will definitely have a switch though!

GSGALLANT

There you go. It looks like it will work perfectly for you like that, then.

mikehinthehouse

Just a curious question.... My daytime running lights are always on...even with just the parking lights on.... is this normal? and if so is there any way to have just your parking lights on?

GSGALLANT

That's normal. You should be able to start the truck without the DRL coming on if the parking brake is on prior to you starting the vehicle (assuming your parking brake switch works, that is). But then as soon as you release the parking brake, the DRL will come on. When the truck is already running with the DRL on, applying the parking brake will not shut the lights off.

mikehinthehouse

cool, so pretty much the only way to get them off is with that DRL sensor under the dash??? I think im gonna put a switch inline with mine.... now to figure out which one I have.... after reading all of those threads sounds like that is the hardest part.....
mikeh

GSGALLANT

I haven't done this, but there's a write up in the Tech section that says to put the switch in the "brown with yellow stripe" wire right before it connects to the Main Daytime Running Light Relay. (The Main Daytime Running Light Relay is the one with 11 wires going to it, and it's just above the accelerator pedal, I believe.) That will cut the control power to the relay.

By quickly looking at the wiring diagrams, it looks like you could also accomplish what you want by putting a switch in the "white with green stripe" wire right before it enters the Main Daytime Running Light Relay. That will interrupt the path to ground of the headlights... but only when the headlight switch is in the "tail" or "off" position, which is when the DRL circuit is the only circuit powering the headlights. With the headlight switch in the "head" position, the circuit uses a different path to ground that doesn't go through the Main Daytime Running Light Relay at all.

These wire colors are all for the 2001/2002 4Runners, but I don't imagine they'd be too different for your 2000.

Does anybody know if an internal schematic of the Main Daytime Running Light Relay itself exists anywhere?

mikehinthehouse

I tried starting the truck with the parking brake on....which we dont use often here in baton rouge... but it did keep the lights from coming on... until released, which is nice to knw.. thanks for the tip gsgallant

GSGALLANT

No prob.